Russell Banks
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Russell Banks (born March 28, 1940 in Newton, Massachusetts) is an American writer of fiction and poetry. He is president of the International Parliament of Writers and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His work has been translated into twenty languages and has received numerous international prizes and awards. His main works include the novels Continental Drift, Rule of the Bone, Cloudsplitter, The Sweet Hereafter, and Affliction. The latter two novels were each made into feature films in 1997; see Affliction (film).
Many of Banks' works reflect his working-class upbringing in New England. His stories often show people facing tragedy and downturns in everyday life, expressing sadness and self-doubt, but also showing resilience and strength in the face of their difficulties.
Banks has also written short stories, some of which appear in the collection The Angel on the Roof, as well as poetry. He has written a movie adaptation of Jack Kerouac's On the Road for producer Francis Ford Coppola, which was slated for production in 2006. [1] It is not known if Banks's screenplay will be used in the final version. Banks's novel The Darling is going to be made into a feature film directed by Martin Scorsese, with Cate Blanchett in the main role.[2]
Banks was the 1985 recipient of the John Dos Passos Prize for fiction.
Banks lives in upstate New York, and has been named a New York State Author. He is presently also Artist-in-Residence at the University of Maryland.
Contents |
[edit] Works
- 1974 Snow (poetry)
- 1975 Searching for Survivors (short story collection)
- 1975 Family Life (novel)
- 1978 The New World (short story collection)
- 1978 Hamilton Stark (novel)
- 1980 The Book of Jamaica (novel)
- 1981 Trailerpark (short story collection)
- 1983 The Relation of My Imprisonment (novel)
- 1985 Continental Drift (novel)
- 1986 Success Stories (short story collection)
- 1989 Affliction (novel)
- 1991 The Sweet Hereafter (novel)
- 1995 Rule of the Bone (novel)
- 1998 Cloudsplitter (novel)
- 1998 Invisible Stranger (nonfiction)
- 2000 The Angel on the Roof (short story collection)
- 2004 The Darling (novel)
- 2008 The Reserve (novel)
[edit] Notes
- ^ Interview: Russell Banks. IdentityTheory.com (January 18, 2005). Retrieved on 2007-12-09.
- ^ Russell Banks. The Steven Barclay Agency (© 2007). Retrieved on 2007-12-09.
[edit] References
- 1989, 1991 interviews with Russell Banks by Don Swaim at Wired for Books
- Author interview in Guernica Magazine (Guernicamag.com)
- http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/banksr.html
- Review of Banks' short fiction
- Russell Banks reads his short story "The Moor" on This American Life
- The Artist and the Upper Class Jennifer Schuessler article on Banks from The New York Review of Books
[edit] External Links
- Russell Banks Collection at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin
- Interview march 2008
- [1] interview with Russell Banks when "The Darling" was published
